The Black Plague by Editor

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Feb 27, 1879

The Black Plague.

By Editor

WE have been carefully watching the reports concerning this terrible scourge, but have deferred speaking on it particularly until we had a more definite understanding of its present progress and the prospect in the future. It seemed to abate for a season in Afghanistan, which rendered it somewhat uncertain whether it would spread greatly at the present time; but the latest reports are of the most alarming nature, and it appears to be placed beyond doubt, that it will scourge the nations in spite of all precautions.

The New York Times says,—"This is the same disease which, in the fourteenth century, desolated the globe, and it gets its name from the black spots, symptomatic of a putrid decomposition, that show themselves at one of its stages, on the skin of the sufferer. It is thought to have had its origin in China in 1333, some fifteen years before its outbreak in Europe, and it raged for twenty-five years, while drouth, famines, floods, earthquakes that swallowed towns and mountains, and swarms of locusts spread devastation everywhere."

But an article in the Cincinnati Commercial gives a much earlier date to its origin, relating it to a plague which devastated many countries long before the Christian Era.

It is not like any other epidemic in this respect, that it moves in utter disregard of climatic influences. It has been known to exist for a considerable time in very cold parts of Russia. Sometimes it travels very slowly. In the 14th century it was three years from the time of its first appearance in Constantinople before it spread in the Russian Territories, reaching them in a round about way. It is estimated that in China alone 13,000,000 people died, and in the remainder of the East 24,000,000, while in Europe 25,000,000 souls perished, making a grand and terrible total of 62,000,000. But as statistics were not obtainable then, it is probable, judging from the fatality in Europe, that this estimate of the loss in China and the East was too low.

The article in the Cincinnati Commercial says, "The present plague is attended with alarming fatality. Nearly all that are attacked die. The official reports say ninety-five per cent. In the Russian village of Vietlianka, out of a population of 1700, not a soul is left. Four hundred corpses were left unburied in the streets; the rest of the population fled, spreading the disease broadcast. In Prischibe, 520 died in two weeks, out of a population of 830. Sometimes the disease appears simultaneously at different points ten miles distant from each other. Its advance is rapid."

In view of its terrible fatality we are not surprised that the fear which spread over Europe amounts almost to a panic. The intercourse of nations, is now greater than ever before, by the moving of armies from continent to continent, but especially by the increased facilities for travel and traffic. The plague is supposed always to exist, in some form, in Central Asia. But emigration from China is of recent origin. This, and the late movement of English and Russian armies, and the war in Afghanistan, all conspire to render a general spread of the plague highly probable. Under date of Feb. 10, from St. Petersburg, come the following dispatches. We give them only as samples of the news continually sent out.

"Advices from the interior state that a general unhealthiness and predisposition to epidemics exists.

"The government of Saratoff complains of the foul condition of Kamishin.

"Typhus fever and smallpox are increasing in an alarming manner in the Government of Tver.

"The Siberian plague has appeared in another village.

"The cattle plague in the vicinity of Ekatermoster has spread to twenty-seven neighboring localities. Of 2000 head attacked, half perished.

"The plague has appeared at a village on the Kieff railway.

"There is great mortality at Orsk from smallpox and another unknown disease.

"An unknown epidemic has appeared in two villages of Tamboo, and the plague is at Rastor."

The following concerning precautionary measures, are dispatches but for two days, as will be seen by the dates.

"ST. PETERSBURG, February 7.—General Melikoff has left for Astrachan to superintend measures for arresting the plague.

"PARIS, February 7.—The French Government is taking measures to prevent the introduction of the Russian plague.

"MADRID, February 7.—Quarantine against the plague has been ordered in all Spanish ports.

"LONDON, February 7.—A dispatch from Vienna states that from fifteen to twenty fresh cases of a disease resembling the plague occur daily near Xanthi, Thessaly, and there is great mortality from the same cause at Raslog. It is believed that the infection was introduced by Kurd Redifs.

"VIENNA, February 7.—The Hungarian Government will dispatch a commission to report upon the state of the public health in Rumania, Bessarabia, Bulgaria, and Rumelia. The Hungarian and Rumanian Governments have agreed to adopt protective measures on a large scale on the Bessarabian and Transylvanian frontiers, and to shift the Russian line of magazines in Rumania eastward behind a double cordon.

"ST. PETERSBURG, February 11.—General Loris Melikoff has proposed to the Governments of Astrakhan, Samara, and Sartog, that all paper money circulating be exchanged for new through the Kaima Volga Bank, and the old destroyed.

"The attention of medical authorities is concentrated on Selitreno and neighboring districts.

"The St. Petersburg Sanitary Commission propose to cleanse the canal and organize large hospitals, which could be anchored in the Gulf of Bothnia; also to organize Sanitary Committees in each district, city and province.

"LONDON, February 11.—The Privy Council has ordered a careful inspection of the bills of health and of the crews and passengers of vessels arriving from the Black Sea.

"ROME, February 11.—The President of the Board of Health, speaking to-day in the Chamber of Deputies, predicted that if the plague penetrated Europe it would destroy a third of the population.

"The Government has ordered a twenty days' quarantine against arrivals from Egypt.

"ALEXANDRIA, February 11.—Vessels with foul bills of health have been refused admission into Egyptian ports.

"BELGRADE, February 11.—Servia has formed a partial cordon on her Turkish frontiers against the plague."

The latest reports are somewhat conflicting. The Court Physician to the Czar, although he confesses the mortality was over 80 per cent. where it raged, considers it nearly extinct. We cannot credit such an opinion. Even if it appears to abate, there is every reason to expect it to appear in other localities. The following is a brief extract from a letter dated St. Petersburg, Feb. 22. "The plague in Russia has spread in the southern provinces at a rapid rate. Thousands upon thousands have died within the last five days. All the physicians ordered to the care of the sick have died within twenty-four hours after their arrival. The corpses are burned, and so are the houses in which the people die. Whole towns have been laid waste during the past few days. The Government has placed a cordon of soldiers around the infected provinces so that the people cannot get out and spread the disease. Any who attempt to break through the cordon are shot dead on the spot. The people are beginning to feel uneasy all over the Empire. The Government does not allow the news to get out. All reports are suppressed. Nobody can get out of the Empire."

Brazil is suffering terribly from famine and disease. The small pox is carrying off a great many, and for several days it has been reported that the plague has appeared there. It is well-known that famine largely prevails in the north of Africa. Fears are expressed that "half the inhabitants of the southern provinces of Morocco will have perished by starvation and disease," before another year, because of the scarcity caused by last year's drouth. All this prepares the way for the plague, and renders it more probable that its spread will be quite general.

But the evidence of "the sure word of prophecy" is disregarded. In this time of calamity wickedness increases, and the authority of God is despised. Even the watchmen continue to say, "to-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant." Sudden destruction impends, yet the delusive cry of "peace and safety" is heard on every hand. We are thankful that not all are thus blinded; that there are honest, God-fearing ones who are willing to be warned, and to prepare for the perils and plagues of the last days.